It may seem a tall order for newspaper companies to profit from raising online paywalls across their online news, but it’s worth remembering that some publishers already are making a success of it: consumer advice publisher Which? reports that paid-for subscriptions to its own Which.co.uk site are up 11 percent in the year to June 30 to a total of 216,000.
That gives the site more subscribers than FT.com, the only major British paper to successfully charge for online content, which has about 117,000 paid-up subscribers.
Total online and print subscriptions, including the flagship Which? magazine, rose by 27,000 to 1.12 million — the fourth consecutive annual rise, a very rare achievement of among consumer titles in the last few years. Which? sites are freemium-based, so reviews and advice articles are free, but premium things like “in-depth product reviews”.
The mags and website carry no advertising, meaning they avoid any conflict of interest by taking product makers’ money and stay largely untouched by the structural storm tearing down the traditional ad-based publishing business model. Instead, the mag is paid-for entirely subscriptions and newsstand sales at Sainsburys stores. Release.

Comments have been disabled for this post